Seeing the elements come alive
SURESH KUMAR. C
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A concert by eminent artistes was magical.
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Each of the elements was represented by one of the artistes. Water was represented by mandolin, fire by flute and the percussion, air by flute and land by vocal.
PHOTO: K. RAMESH BABU
WINSOME TRIO Pt. Hariprasad Chourasia, Sivamani and Pt. Jasraj.
As part of celebrations of `200 years of Secunderabad', a unique musical concert was organised at the Harihara Kala Bhavan on June 7. Three maestros in their fields, brought together to perform a fusion music on the five elements of life named `Panchatatva', was indeed a good effort on the part of Durga Jasraj, who conceptualised the idea along with Vikram Shankar.
Both these youngsters are innovative and are bringing in good form of music, keeping in view the culture of our country and they need to be appreciated for their effort.
The three maestros who took part in this effort were the vocalist, Pt. Jasraj, flautist Pt. Hariprasad Chourasia, and mandolin wizard U. Shrinivas.
To accompany them on percussion were very popular and energetic Pt. Vijay Ghate on tabla, Sivamani on drums and Uma Shankar, son of eminent ghatam player Vikku Vinayakam, on Ghatam.
True to tradition programme was delayed by nearly 90 minutes. There was no announcement about the delay in starting the concert.
The large turnout of music lovers ran out of patience and started booing and clapping. After an hour, and to keep the audience engaged, the organizers played a short audio visual on 200 years of Secunderabad.
Much to the annoyance of the already irritated audience, the organisers repeated the audio visual, which again drew cat calls and boos, thankfully the chief guest, Minister of Municipal Administration, Koneru Ranga Rao, arrived and the same was stopped. The concert lasted for 90 minutes and the organisers should have chosen to start the programme on time, instead of holding such a large gathering to ransom for the sake of one person and could have conveniently had the felicitation function after the show. The jam-packed audience was finally rewarded for their patience by an excellent fusion music named Panchatatva, the five elements of life. The five elements of life - water, fire, air, land and the human being, were depicted in poetry and followed by music. The poetry, which was well written, was rendered aptly by Durga Jasraj. She did full justice to the poetry.
Each of the elements were represented by each of the artiste, like the water was represented by mandolin; the fire by flute and the percussion; the air by flute; the land by vocal; and the human was a combination of all the artistes. It was an extraordinary performance by all the artistes in this innovative fusion music. The sheer strumming of the mandolin created the vision of water flowing as was the case with the fire where the percussionists created the atmosphere of ravaging fire. The cool air and the gentle breeze were depicted by the maestro Hariprasad Chaurasia on his flute and Pt. Jasraj represented the land.
The base notes sung by Pt. Jasraj, especially touching the low notes in sur and laya is an education and learning experience to all students of classical music.
The tarana he sang was a highlight. To represent the human life, all the artistes performed together which was another masterpiece. Different ragas were chosen to depict each element by the artistes. In true Hindustani style, they chose Raag Bhairavi for a fitting conclusion.Such a creative programme should have been thrown open to public in an open-air auditorium since the acoustics did create a din at times.
Within a short time, Durga and Vikram have brought in two good shows. What's next?
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